Gunners seeking European glory

On Thursday the fans can expect another Europa League match day. The second leg of the round of 16 awaits us and in our analysis we will deal with the top match Arsenal FC against Sporting Lisbon. After a winless draw in Lisbon, the traditional Portuguese club has to travel to London. Arsenal are the clear favorites and Lisbon are only given very few outsider chances. In the following expert analysis you can read why this is the case, which tips we recommend, the right odds for the game, possible line-ups, injuries, suspensions, interesting information and much more. 

The hosts from London are clearly seen as the favorites. It is one of the lowest favorite picks of the entire day, while the odds for the guests from Lisbon are very high. Even if the first leg ended in a draw, the bookmakers think that with the help of the home fans and the associated tailwind, the Londoners have a clear chance of victory. But the general starting situation also gives the hosts clear advantages for the Europa League game. 

Are you new to our Betandyou blog? Well, check out our promotions!

Arsenal on their way to domestic and international glory 

While they certainly wouldn't have expected it before the season, the London Reds are on track for one of their best seasons in a long time. The very young team under Mikel Arteta was able to get together well and is now probably the best team from England. They are currently in first place in the Premier League with 66 points from 27 games. They have a five-point lead over reigning champions Manchester City. Both in the league and in the Europa League they have realistic chances of winning the title. This would mean winning the coveted English league for the first time since the 03/04 season. At that time, this was still under the legendary coach Arsene Wenger.

A few weeks ago it looked as if the potential success this season would be wasted prematurely. Back then, there were two defeats by Manchester City, one loss by Everton and a draw by Brentford, all in just four games. However, they were able to recover quickly and have been in the usual good form since then. Four wins have now been collected in the last five matches and only once has there been a draw, in the first half of the round of 16 in the Europa League. Only the fact that they can't always convince against the top teams alleviates hope a bit. Often they either couldn't win the game or just won, but the record should be better for a club.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta prefers a clear direction for his tactical plan. On the defensive they run exclusively in the back four. There wasn't a single game this season in which they bet on anything other than the back four. The season began in the 4-2-3-1 formation, but over the course of the season they switched more and more to the 4-3-3 formation. Not surprising, since Mikel Arteta is a former student of Pep Guardiola, who made the 4-3-3 formation world-famous. We expect this formation for Thursday's game against Sporting Lisbon.

They don't have any major injury problems in London, but Arteta still has to make some changes. Mohamed Elneny is out in midfield with a knee injury and star striker Gabriel Jesus is absent in attack. The latter is out for an indefinite period due to his knee injury.

Sporting Lisbon’s last chance for a title this season

There is a lot at stake for the visiting team from Lisbon in the Europa League. It's the last chance of the current season to lift another trophy. They are currently in fourth place in the league, 15 points behind leaders Benfica. It will now mainly be about reaching third place in the table and thus qualifying for the Champions League qualification. They are five points behind third place. In the two Portuguese cups they had to say goodbye early on and so only the Europa League remains as a possible cup.

Like the hosts from London, the guests from Lisbon are in good form and travel to the Emirates Stadium motivated. Of the last five games they could also win four and only play a draw once. This draw was achieved in the first half of the season against Arsenal. Both teams will therefore meet in a similar form and will try to make it into the quarter-finals perfectly.

Sporting coach Rúben Amorim also prefers a clear direction for his tactical plan. What the back four is for Arsenal, the back three is for the guests from Lisbon. On the defensive, they rely exclusively on this and have never changed to another system. If you look at the formations, they almost always fall back on the 3-4-3 formation. Only once in the current season did they switch to the 3-4-2-1 formation. For obvious reasons we therefore expect the 3-4-3, after all this was used most of the time and also in the first leg.

Three players are injured for the Portuguese team. Goalkeeper Antonio Adán and right-back Héctor Bellerín are absent with unknown injuries. In addition, Daniel Bragança is missing in midfield, who will be out indefinitely due to a cruciate ligament rupture.

Arsenal - Sporting Lisbon: What to expect? 

Arsenal have scored 19 goals in their last 10 games. Sporting Lisbon, on the other hand, scored 23 goals. If we disregard the goal difference of both teams, which averaged 11.5, the teams averaged 4.2 goals per game. Therefore we recommend Under 4.5 goals or Over 3.5 goals as likely variants. On average, both teams have scored in 90% of the games. The probability based on the last games suggests that this time both teams can score.

There are not many encounters from which we could draw important conclusions. However, they met once before in the 2018/19 season in the group stage of the Europa League. At that time there was a 0-0 draw and a narrow 0-1 win for the Reds. Even if the first leg was also a draw and the teams were evenly matched, we believe that Arsenal will ultimately prevail and advance to the quarter-finals.

• Both Teams To Score
• Arsenal to win

* All odds and markets are correct at time of publication and subject to change.